The Newsroom

BBC News at One / Six or Ten to be axed?

Head of BBC News says she expect just one bulletin a day within the next decade. (August 2020)

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SO
Soupnzi
Ne1L C posted:
JamesLaverty1925 posted:
Well, just catching up on this, and I think it's utter garbage.

While it has its faults, the BBC is well known for major bulletins at One, Six and Ten. I know people who for a fact, even when streaming, pause at Ten (or occasionally Six if started early enough) to stop for the main bulletins of the day.

The best thing maybe however, is to make sure each bulletin is fresh/unique. Similar to the 99 relaunch, have one focus on Britain, and one on international news, while providing summaries of the other in the bulletin


That's not a bad idea. the one could be on international news, the 6 could be on national news (would probably get the lions share of audience ie shift workers and the 10 could be a mix)

This is also utter garbage. The idea that a C2DE predominantly very old British audience will sit through 30 mins of the sort of stuff you’d see on BBC World is not going to happen, as much as people on here would love to see some sort of simulacast.
itsrobert, Matthew_Fieldhouse and chris gave kudos
JF
JF World News
Soupnzi posted:
Ne1L C posted:
JamesLaverty1925 posted:
Well, just catching up on this, and I think it's utter garbage.

While it has its faults, the BBC is well known for major bulletins at One, Six and Ten. I know people who for a fact, even when streaming, pause at Ten (or occasionally Six if started early enough) to stop for the main bulletins of the day.

The best thing maybe however, is to make sure each bulletin is fresh/unique. Similar to the 99 relaunch, have one focus on Britain, and one on international news, while providing summaries of the other in the bulletin


That's not a bad idea. the one could be on international news, the 6 could be on national news (would probably get the lions share of audience ie shift workers and the 10 could be a mix)

This is also utter garbage. The idea that a C2DE predominantly very old British audience will sit through 30 mins of the sort of stuff you’d see on BBC World is not going to happen, as much as people on here would love to see some sort of simulacast.


The 7pm bulletin before Brexit/COVID on BBC Four was designed to be the bulletin designed to focus on mainly international news, that was expanded to 9pm in 2015 daily
AN
Andrew Founding member
JamesLaverty1925 posted:
Well, just catching up on this, and I think it's utter garbage.

While it has its faults, the BBC is well known for major bulletins at One, Six and Ten. I know people who for a fact, even when streaming, pause at Ten (or occasionally Six if started early enough) to stop for the main bulletins of the day.

The best thing maybe however, is to make sure each bulletin is fresh/unique. Similar to the 99 relaunch, have one focus on Britain, and one on international news, while providing summaries of the other in the bulletin


The point is though, that viewer numbers aren't falling, so they don't need to change anything to make it fresh and unique

BBC News bulletins are often the highest rating shows on BBC One ahead of regular programming
NL
Ne1L C
Soupnzi posted:
Ne1L C posted:
JamesLaverty1925 posted:
Well, just catching up on this, and I think it's utter garbage.

While it has its faults, the BBC is well known for major bulletins at One, Six and Ten. I know people who for a fact, even when streaming, pause at Ten (or occasionally Six if started early enough) to stop for the main bulletins of the day.

The best thing maybe however, is to make sure each bulletin is fresh/unique. Similar to the 99 relaunch, have one focus on Britain, and one on international news, while providing summaries of the other in the bulletin


That's not a bad idea. the one could be on international news, the 6 could be on national news (would probably get the lions share of audience ie shift workers and the 10 could be a mix)

This is also utter garbage. The idea that a C2DE predominantly very old British audience will sit through 30 mins of the sort of stuff you’d see on BBC World is not going to happen, as much as people on here would love to see some sort of simulacast.


There’s no justification whatsoever to call the idea garbage. We’ve avoided insults for most of the time here.

By all means express your view that you think it’s a bad idea but pack it in with the insults.
chris and SuperSajuuk gave kudos
MA
Meridian AM
Andrew posted:
JamesLaverty1925 posted:
Well, just catching up on this, and I think it's utter garbage.

While it has its faults, the BBC is well known for major bulletins at One, Six and Ten. I know people who for a fact, even when streaming, pause at Ten (or occasionally Six if started early enough) to stop for the main bulletins of the day.

The best thing maybe however, is to make sure each bulletin is fresh/unique. Similar to the 99 relaunch, have one focus on Britain, and one on international news, while providing summaries of the other in the bulletin


The point is though, that viewer numbers aren't falling, so they don't need to change anything to make it fresh and unique

BBC News bulletins are often the highest rating shows on BBC One ahead of regular programming


Yes, at the moment they rate well.
But this is about the future and they are expecting linear TV news ratings to fall over the next 10 years.
This is more about it being easier and quicker to pick up phones and tablets to find exactly what you want.
NL
Ne1L C
Meridian AM posted:
Andrew posted:
JamesLaverty1925 posted:
Well, just catching up on this, and I think it's utter garbage.

While it has its faults, the BBC is well known for major bulletins at One, Six and Ten. I know people who for a fact, even when streaming, pause at Ten (or occasionally Six if started early enough) to stop for the main bulletins of the day.

The best thing maybe however, is to make sure each bulletin is fresh/unique. Similar to the 99 relaunch, have one focus on Britain, and one on international news, while providing summaries of the other in the bulletin


The point is though, that viewer numbers aren't falling, so they don't need to change anything to make it fresh and unique

BBC News bulletins are often the highest rating shows on BBC One ahead of regular programming


Yes, at the moment they rate well.
But this is about the future and they are expecting linear TV news ratings to fall over the next 10 years.
This is more about it being easier and quicker to pick up phones and tablets to find exactly what you want.


There is also the familiarity factor. Knowing that the BBC 1 news is fixed at 1, 6 and 10 in my opinion provides a sources of comfort to many. I agree linear ratings will fall over the next decade but I can't see them dropping to such a extent where the six goes bye bye.
AA
Aaron_2015
Quite uncomfortable with Unsworth being described as an ‘idiot’ for simply making a prediction, when asked to do so in an interview. It’s also highly insulting, and frankly delirious, for people on this thread to suggest the Head of BBC News is ill informed on the subject of the future of BBC News.

There is clearly a level of attachment on this forum to the traditional 1, 6 and 10 o’clock bulletins. But, as Unsworth is perhaps alluding to, if there was a scenario where viewing figures dropped to extremely low levels, then it’s realistic one of the bulletins would probably be dropped. Daytime figures are already fairly low, if they dropped to say 400,000 (or lower), would it be cost effective to produce a live 1pm bulletin? Probably not.
Steve Williams, Jonwo and Night Thoughts gave kudos
IT
itsrobert Founding member
JF World News posted:
Soupnzi posted:
Ne1L C posted:

That's not a bad idea. the one could be on international news, the 6 could be on national news (would probably get the lions share of audience ie shift workers and the 10 could be a mix)

This is also utter garbage. The idea that a C2DE predominantly very old British audience will sit through 30 mins of the sort of stuff you’d see on BBC World is not going to happen, as much as people on here would love to see some sort of simulacast.


The 7pm bulletin before Brexit/COVID on BBC Four was designed to be the bulletin designed to focus on mainly international news, that was expanded to 9pm in 2015 daily

And look where it was hidden away - on BBC Four. It was available for those who wanted to seek it out but it certainly wasn't mainstream. And the increase in international news on the BBC News Channel has not been because viewers wanted it; it's purely driven by cost savings.

By and large, I'm afraid most people just aren't that interested in news from other countries unless it has an impact on their own country or they are considered allies. For instance, there is more interest in US or Australian news in the UK than there would be for Angolan or Vietnamese.

I had access to BBC World via a satellite dish that I had for about 15 years and, apart from the fantastic presentation at the time, the news content wasn't especially interesting. The more interesting international news (such as about Europe, G7 countries etc) featured on the main BBC1 bulletins anyway and was explained in a way that was more relevant to me as a British viewer. And the rest of the BBC World news content was about far away countries in Asia, Africa or South America. Do I really need to know that Bolivia is having an election?

I know that will probably be an unpopular opinion here, but that's why I think it's important to maintain the main network BBC1 bulletins with a carefully selected mix of UK and world news stories designed for a British audience. The BBC News Channel is dying because there is now too much non-UK news featured on it thanks to all the simulcasts. This must be the first time in 20 years I've hardly even tuned into it. I now associate it with foreign news and gimmicky presentation. My go-to news channel is now Sky News and CNN for US news. I would never in a month of Sundays have said that, particularly about Sky News, 10-15 years ago.
NL
Ne1L C
Aaron_2015 posted:
Quite uncomfortable with Unsworth being described as an ‘idiot’ for simply making a prediction, when asked to do so in an interview. It’s also highly insulting, and frankly delirious, for people on this thread to suggest the Head of BBC News is ill informed on the subject of the future of BBC News.

There is clearly a level of attachment on this forum to the traditional 1, 6 and 10 o’clock bulletins. But, as Unsworth is perhaps alluding to, if there was a scenario where viewing figures dropped to extremely low levels, then it’s realistic one of the bulletins would probably be dropped. Daytime figures are already fairly low, if they dropped to say 400,000 (or lower), would it be cost effective to produce a live 1pm bulletin? Probably not.


There is the financial aspect of course. If any of the bulletins were to go the the 1 would be likeliest. It would probably mean the end of the local news as well. I don;t know if you can call any of the responses delirious.
MA
Meridian AM
itsrobert posted:
JF World News posted:
Soupnzi posted:
This is also utter garbage. The idea that a C2DE predominantly very old British audience will sit through 30 mins of the sort of stuff you’d see on BBC World is not going to happen, as much as people on here would love to see some sort of simulacast.


The 7pm bulletin before Brexit/COVID on BBC Four was designed to be the bulletin designed to focus on mainly international news, that was expanded to 9pm in 2015 daily

And look where it was hidden away - on BBC Four. It was available for those who wanted to seek it out but it certainly wasn't mainstream. And the increase in international news on the BBC News Channel has not been because viewers wanted it; it's purely driven by cost savings.

By and large, I'm afraid most people just aren't that interested in news from other countries unless it has an impact on their own country or they are considered allies. For instance, there is more interest in US or Australian news in the UK than there would be for Angolan or Vietnamese.

I had access to BBC World via a satellite dish that I had for about 15 years and, apart from the fantastic presentation at the time, the news content wasn't especially interesting. The more interesting international news (such as about Europe, G7 countries etc) featured on the main BBC1 bulletins anyway and was explained in a way that was more relevant to me as a British viewer. And the rest of the BBC World news content was about far away countries in Asia, Africa or South America. Do I really need to know that Bolivia is having an election?

I know that will probably be an unpopular opinion here, but that's why I think it's important to maintain the main network BBC1 bulletins with a carefully selected mix of UK and world news stories designed for a British audience. The BBC News Channel is dying because there is now too much non-UK news featured on it thanks to all the simulcasts. This must be the first time in 20 years I've hardly even tuned into it. I now associate it with foreign news and gimmicky presentation. My go-to news channel is now Sky News and CNN for US news. I would never in a month of Sundays have said that, particularly about Sky News, 10-15 years ago.


Totally agree with all of this. I give you double kudos. 🤪😀
JW
JamesWorldNews
Eloquent as ever, Rob.
NL
Ne1L C
To my mind the issue is not the network news. Its the news channel itself. I don't know what the viewing figure are for the NC but i should imagine their pretty low.

My solution is to scrap the NC for domestic audiences and boost the network bulletins.

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